problem of factories and pollution, and on the right, you can see some effort to try to clean it up. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. tuesday, april 22nd. great to see you today. it is -- this is the "full court press." coming to you live on current tv in every corner of this great united states of america. wherever you happen to be this tuesday morning, thank you so much for joining us. and get ready to rock n' roll here because there is a lot going on and we'll tell you

what's going on and get your comefnts. invite your comments. make you part of the show by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. that's our toll free number. talk to us on twitter. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook, facebook.com/billpressshow. it is now official! the suspect in the boston marathon bombings has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction -- or weapons of mass destruction that resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to over 170 more people. that's for now. you know he will also soon be charged with killing an mit police officer. he was questioned. he was read his rights. he now has an attorney. he has been mirandizeed, if you will. the white house says, however he will not, no matter what lindsey graham says, he will not be tried as an enemy combatant.

fireworks on the hill yesterday over immigration reform and long, long delays at airports because of the sequester. you got it. we'll tell you that and more right here on current tv. john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know

that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: he's been charged with using weapons of mass destruction in boston. what do you say? good morning everybody. here we go. the "full court press" on a tuesday, april 23. time flies. when there's so much going on, it sure does.

great to see you this morning. thank you for joining us. this is the "full court press." this is your local progressive talk radio station. this is sirius x.m. for this one hour only. this is current tv and this is what's happening today. we'll let you know up in boston, here in washington d.c. and around the country, lots going on lots to talk about around the globe. in fact, here's the story though. we'll not only tell you what's going on we will give you a chance to air your opinions. we want to know what you think about these issues of the day. that's why we always reach out to you and give you an opportunity to join us on our phone lines at 1-866-55-press. i hope you have that on automatic speed dial by now. join us on twitter if that's easier for you. if you're a twitterrite.

our twitter handle of course is at bpshow. become our friend on facebook. facebook.com/billpressshow. here we go. with the team this tuesday morning, still a little chilly here in washington, d.c. everybody's complaining. it looked like last week we were into spring, if not summer. and now we're back into fall. i don't know. >> there's something going on. >> bill: peter ogborn, ladies and gentlemen dan henning. >> definitely something going on with this weather. >> bill: dan beginning his ninth year this year? >> i was celebrating my -- alsheesh cruz on the -- alichia cruz on the phones. >> i was celebrating my sixth year anniversary. >> i wish -- no, he can't. >> cyprian bowlding has the video cam. >> yes, he does. >> bill: it is a little chilly. >> it is just weird. two weeks ago it was summer out.

and now it's 41 degrees outside. >> bill: shorts and t-shirt weather a week ago. i don't know. listen to the weather some people are having -- >> good point. >> bill: more flooding in the midwest and all kinds of stuff. can i just say the nats last night? boy, am i the only one who thought this is just like the playoff game. nats up against the cardinals and they couldn't get it together. >> there's too much preseason hype. there's too much preseason hype around the nats. everyone started declaring them the greatest game in baseball. >> bill: they won the first four. we'll go undefeated. >> don't count them out yet. >> i'm not counting them out. >> bill: i'm just saying they lost last night. they lost to the cardinals in the playoff game. it was deja vu all over again. >> and they lost to the mets over the weekend. >> they've lost a couple of big games to teams that they have to

beat. so they're going to have to progress and get better or else they're going to have a very short post-season. >> bill: that was the bad news yesterday. the good news up in boston, boylston street is back. the police commissioner, ed davis who has become a mythic folk hero, rightfully so up in boston basically gave the keys to boylston street back to the city of boston. >> there were trucks from work -- but from the police end of it, we're handing it over to the city now. >> bill: handing it over to mayor menino and the chief said, you know, look, boylston street is back and so is the city of boston. >> people will be back here in a day or so and they'll be walking up and down the street and then the terrorists will understand they cannot keep us down. >> bill: yep. boston strong! great spirit up there among the people. yesterday, of course, at 2:45

p.m. yesterday afternoon everybody paused for a moment of silence. in boston and at the white house in memory of those who lost their lives just one week ago yesterday afternoon. to help us through the issues of the day today ambassador jim jones, former u.s. ambassador to mexico will be here in studio with us. igor volsky, of course here as he is every tuesday from think progress and a very exciting guest today and an unusual guest, randy couture a former mma boxing star, a boxing star and an mma star and a great actor, too. extenders? >> expendables. i think he's a chump and i'm going to tell him that to his face. >> bill: he will crush you! >> you're probably right. >> bill: he will crush you. >> you're definitely right! >> bill: i have a friend who wrestled with him.

>> no kidding! >> bill: he told him didn't stand a chance. flattened him out. >> if you're not familiar with randy, go online and do a google image search for him. >> bill: i'm afraid of him already. >> there are a lot of pictures of him with his shirt off. he is chilled out of rock. >> bill: i'm afraid of him already. i'm going to have cyprian come in and stand alongside of me. >> your body guard? [ laughter ] perfect. >> bill: all right. and yes indeed, they're whining about air traffic delays yesterday. i hate to say it but i told you so. but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday look who's back on twitter. anthony weiner is back on twitter. yes, the former congressman who met his downfall thanks to his misuse of twitter is back on the social network with the handle at anthony weiner further fueling speculation he's running

for mayor of new york. his first two tweets were about his keys to the city plan which carries the theme to keep new york the capital of the middle class. >> did he have his pants on? >> he had his pants on on twitter yesterday. >> i will say this. if this is what he's doing and he's running for mayor which it seems that he is, he's making all of the right steps. at some point he has to get back on twitter. he created a whole new account. and i hope that he's smarter with this one than he was with the last one. >> bill: i wish him well but you have to expect a joke. >> oh, yeah! the star of one of president obama's favorite tv shows is attending the white house correspondents' dinner this weekend, claire danes plays a c.i.a. agent on homeland. she's the guest of cbs news and will be sitting at a table full of members of the military. the network's other guests include afghanistan forces commander general john allen

also army vice chief of staff general john campbell and retired admiral mike mullen, the former joint chiefs of staff. among others. >> bill: i will be there. that's not the table i'm sitting at. i wouldn't mind sitting at that table. as you're drinking your coffee or tea this morning there is a good chance you went out of your way to get it instead of going for what was convenient. a new harris poll on morning beverage habits finds 60% of people will go out of their way to drink coffee or tea they think tastes better and they'll also spend more money for it. 78% say taste is the most important factor in choosing what they drink. >> bill: what do they mean going out of their way to get it? >> instead of stopping by the 7-eleven actually out of your way or whatever coffee shop. and actually make your commute longer or your morning longer. >> bill: i can see that if you've tried different coffees

and you know which one you prefer, why would you drink the junk? go for the good stuff. it proves americans are smart. i love this story where we start this morning with all of the whining. i'm sure you heard it yesterday. no, no no. the whining. the whining over air traffic delays and some flight cancellations yesterday. now, look, i don't blame them in a accepts for whining because who hasn't? we've all been caught in delays at the airport. we've all suffered canceled flights at the airport. we've all been either waiting at the gate or you get on board and you sit on the tarmac or, you know, you're in the air and you circle, circle, circle and it is a pain in the ass royal pain in the ass but i gotta say i told you so. not really i told you so.

they told us so! we should not be surprised. i remember, i remember talking about it here on the "full court press." i was in those briefings at the white house when jay carney brought in, among others, homeland security secretary janet napolitano. she said you know what? if this sequester goes through it will be bad news. delays at the border. furlough some of our border security guards. so if you really care about border security, you should not go through with the sequester. i was there on point here when secretary of transportation ray lahood good man i think has done a great job. he came in and he said hey, folks, i gotta tell you the faa is one of the biggest parts of the department of transportation. and they got nothing but people, you know. they don't have like battleships that can keep in port or whatever and we're going to have to cut x billion dollars whatever it is.

the only way we can meet that goal is we're going to have to furlough. and most of our people -- so we have nothing but employees basically. most of our people or a good schaffer our people are air-traffic controllers so there is no way -- this is what lahood told us, told the world. there is no way that we can avoid this. therefore, no way to avoid what that's going to mean. three things, he said. delays in flights. cancellation of flights and shutting down some regional towers. and he appealed to his fellow republicans. he is a republican. was saying republicans cannot let this happen because they're going to suffer the consequences. of course people said they're just exaggerating. that's not going to happen. and then march 1 kicks in, the sequester kicks in. immediately, planes are still flying so people said see i

told you so. i told you so, see? the sequester means nothing. le. le. well it takes time. they have to wait 30 days before they can issue the sequesters then they issue them and it takes time for the sequesters to kick in and guess what. they kicked in yesterday! so here we go! exactly what ray lahood predicted came true. there were flight delays yesterday because there were like 10% fewer controllers in the towers and yet the same number of flights. so when you have the same number of flights and fewer air-traffic controllers, what do they have to do? they have to keep planes apart they have to keep planes from taking off. they have to space them out. so they can handle them safely. there were delays of up to three hours in atlanta yesterday. can you imagine? three hours. you could be at your destination in three hours. there were flights delays of

two hours out of chicago's o'hare and here in washington, d.c. between here and new york, both at la guardia and national airport up to one and a half to two hour delays in the shuttle which is less than an hour flight. you could have taken the train and gotten there. >> you really could have. >> bill: and people were bitching and moaning and the pilots and the flight attendants and the airlines put out a statement saying this is terrible. we can't let that happen and then republicans were saying what is the obama administration doing? they're doing exactly what the republicans voted for! they're doing exactly what the sequester requires. so you know, they can't have it both ways. they can't do these dumb ass across-the-board cuts without having any impact. and we're seeing the impact. we're seeing the impact in programs particularly that hurt the poor, we're seeing the

impact in head start. we're seeing the impact in food stamps. we're seeing the impact on meals on wheels, all across the board. emergency room services. now we're seeing the impact on -- we've seen the impact in the military where training has been delayed or training has been just put aside. all kinds of things. ship battleships. and we've seep the delay now with air traffic just regular passengers, trying to get from one place to the other. delays cancellations and some smaller airports, the airports actually shut down because they had to close down the tower. one way out of this. you tell me what you think about this. particularly like to hear if you were caught in one of the delays yesterday or if you happen to be an air-traffic controller or a pilot or a flight attendant affected by this. 1-866-55-press. toll free number. one easy way out of this.

congress puts the sequester in. congress can take the sequester out. and they can instead of this across-the-board cuts, they can do what the president said. let's have a balanced plan. yeah, we'll have some cuts but we'll get rid of some of the tax loopholes on the people who own corporate jets, for example own the big oil companies. the republicans insist on this dumb ass sequester and keep it going, then they can't complain when the cuts begin. 1-866-55-press. let's talk about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv. can become major victories. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. when i was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high.

>> only on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

(vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show" now on current tv. >> bill: all right. here we go. 25 minutes after the hour. it is just delicious to watch these people say ah, had nothing's gonna happen. when it does, say oh, no! oh no! of course, they won't admit they made a big mistake with the sequester. you know what? it's going to get worse and worse and worse and worse! and at some point americans will be down on their knees saying please get rid of this sequester! it's gotta happen. you cannot do these across the board mindless cuts without having impacts like we started to see yesterday. you know what? i hope they continue. i've got a flight coming up to las vegas and a few other places, one out to the west coast. i don't want to have two or three hour delay but i hope it

becomes unfreakin' bearable in every way! and then let them cry uncle. >> we're on twitter at bp show where it says what is it going to take to make the g.o.p. responsible for the strangle hold they're putting on this country. notice what the g.o.p. cares about, white house tours rich man's airport and flight delays but not anything that helps the average or the poor. >> bill: remember indiana they have a lottery to decide which kids get thrown overboard and which kids get a headstart slot. stuart down in st. petersburg, florida. >> caller: good morning, bill. i would love to know why hasn't ray lahood, all the congress and every administrator that we have in all of these departments like the faa why haven't they taken a cut in their pay to avoid a furlough of these employees?

>> bill: that's a good question. some of them have. but you know, the honest truth is ray lahood could take a 50% cut. he could take a 90% cut. it won't put the air-traffic controllers back to work. >> what i'm saying is -- >> bill: it is just not going to happen. all of the cabinet secretaries could do that. that's a nice, cheap shot, stuart but it doesn't add up to a lot of money. joey is calling from chicago. >> caller: i'm sick of republicans wanting the benefits of society but not wanting to help or sacrifice anything to achieve that goal. >> bill: exactly. >> caller: they want to stick the regular people but they don't want to participate in helping us. i've had it with them. we need a war against the republican party and the rest of the people in this country. >> bill: joey, you will lead it too. by the way on stuart's point it is outrageous. members of congress have exempted themselves from any

furlough cuts. so, yeah no skin off their ass. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> announcer: chat, with you live at current.com/billpress. this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: here we go. this is live television here, guys. >> we were reading the adoring comments for igor online. >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. good morning, everybody. it is the "full court press." here we go. coming to you live from our studio on capitol hill in

washington, d.c. we're brought to you by the great men and women of afscme. president lee saunders. leading the way in every state and every city or across the land. for more information find out -- go to their web site at afscme.org. that's a-f-s-c-m-e.org. afscme.org. there are so many things to talk about and think about and care about, we can't do it alone. we need the help of our good friends at think progress. we get their help every day and every tuesday igor volsky comes in. deputy -- i'm sorry the managing editor. >> you're demoting me. >> bill: oh, my god. he comes in every tuesday to straighten us out here. igor, good to see you this morning. >> good morning. >> bill: where do we start today? let's start with -- last week,

brian williams did a great job where he looked back at what happened last week and then all the things that weren't reported because there were so many other really, really big stories like you know, the -- is it the f-87 -- or 787 the dreamliner. >> i don't know the number but the big boeing airplane. >> bill: they've been ok'd to fly again. >> yes. >> bill: i never saw the story last week. there are stories like that that never got reported. the immigration bill came out last week. there was not a whole lot on it because so much attention on boston and on the gun vote. but on the gun vote, we saw where the families from newtown came down here. they walked the halls. they met with every single senator and made their case. and then some senators voted against them, igor. >> let me say i had the opportunity to talk to some of

these families, these are families of survivors of victims, families who were turned into activists. >> bill: yes. >> through no choice of their own but have been working on this issue for years. >> bill: worst of circumstances, losing one of their kids and losing a 6-year-old. >> losing a 6-year-old. losing their parents in some cases. and they went to capitol hill really forced congress to take this issue up. got a lot of senators to vote on the motion to proceed who wouldn't have otherwise. they did. of course, when it came to a vote last week, the bill fell short. the background bill expanding background checks. this was a compromise bill in and of itself. it wasn't a universal bill, online sales. joe manchin pat toomey. they say they're going to continue working on it. let's hope they do. they'll have to twist the arm of one senator, jeff flake from arizona.

he's gabby giffords' good friend. initially after newtown he said let's look at background checks. i support background checks. it is something we can get behind. but then voted against them. >> bill: he told the families that. >> told the families that. he, like a lot of the senators on the fence were getting a lot of pressures from the families. they were there on capitol hill. they literally ran into the senators, ran into a lot of them. went into their offices and flake -- tried to be responding to the families from when he saw them and so before he took the vote he wrote -- i believe the mother of the daughter -- whose daughter was killed in aurora, wrote to her and said i support background checks. we're on the same page when it comes to expanding background checks. a couple of days later -- >> bill: he voted against it. >> the reasons he gave were bogus reasons that mark kelly, gabby giffords' husband had to call him out buddy you didn't

read the bill. if you think this is going to lead to a registry or touch private sales it's not going to. so he looks you know, a little opportunistic, shall we say. >> bill: he looks like a liar. he double crossed these parents. his name is jeff flake. well, he is one. for sure! >> the girds group said now they're going to target him. -- the giffords group said they're going to target him. i think these votes are memorable. >> bill: okay, but you mentioned mark kelly and gabby giffords. i was so happy last week when i was in new york to see a billboard with their pictures on it and the message about we need to do something about guns in times square. so they've really -- big campaign. >> the tone gabby has taken has been impressive. it is not oh, this is so bad i'm so sad but it is this fighting tone of we're going to

get this done. it has created the space for activists to say hold these folks accountable. do it and demand a vote. >> bill: some people are now saying yeah, but what does she know? she was shot in the head. why should we listen to her? people are actually saying this. >> you knew it was coming. >> bill: last week, the day after the vote, last thursday morning in "the new york times," there was an op-ed piece a powerful piece -- >> scathing piece. >> bill: by gabby gifteds slamming the senators for slamming down the universal background checks. james from the "wall street journal" who was on nra's radio program yesterday he not only doesn't agree with her but suggests she's mentally incapable of writing such a thing. here he is. >> if you read this piece, it is presented as a cry from the

heart. as giffords' personal reaction as somebody who has been wounded by gun violence, to the betrayal of the senators. so we're supposed to believe somehow within less than five hours, a woman who has severe impairments of her motor and speech functions was able to produce 900 publishable words and put in from the white house. that's a little bit odd. >> bill: is there any level to which they will not sink. attack this poor woman and say she doesn't have the mental capacity to write an op-ed piece. >> it took several years for the right to go after the 9-11 families. >> bill: didn't take them that long. >> i think it was longer than here in the case of gabby. >> bill: it did. >> that's how they operate. >> bill: they went after 9-11 and they've gone after the newtown families saying they're

props. it wasn't right. >> manipulative. >> bill: how dare they put pressure on us. now they're attacking gabby giffords' mental capacity. >> who knows more about the dangers of guns than the parents of the newtown children or gabby giffords and did she have help writing the piece. maybe. she was also shot in the head with a gun. >> bill: i might also point out that it would not have been -- i write a column, okay. i've written a column for a long time. it would not have been unusual for her -- whatever help she had -- by the way a lot of famous people have people help them write columns. >> this is true. >> bill: do the first draft or whatever. it would not have been unusual to have two versions of the op-ed piece ready to go. one, boom, if the senators went up, thumbs up, thumbs down.

>> in your certainty that was how it was done. >> bill: this a-hole should have known that. there's nothing that they won't stop at, right? no limits. no limits to their cruelty. and so on another subject you've been writing about, now sort of in the same vein, some republicans are trying to derail the immigration bill which is put out there by a bipartisan group of senators, eight of them. but some republicans are trying to derail it because, oh my god, these two young kids came here 10 or 12 years ago immigrated here with their families from russia and look what they did at the boston marathon so therefore we can have no immigration reform. chuck schumer went after this -- made this point yesterday and chuck grassley from iowa was not

happy. >> i say that particularly those who were pointing to what happened, the terrible tragedy in boston, as a -- i would say excuse. for not doing a bill or delaying it many months or years. >> i never said that. i never said that! >> i didn't say you did sir. >> i didn't say -- >> i don't know. >> you mr. grassley. >> mr. chairman, i don't appreciate -- >> let me finish. >> bill: batman jumps in. and just brings the whole hearing back to order. but it is true. maybe grassley didn't but rand paul said this means we've got to put a hole in everything. wrote a letter to harry reid saying we can't proceed with immigration reform until we straighten out what happened up in boston. >> it is remarkable to me -- >> bill: they'll stop at nothing. >> they'll stop at nothing. but the fact that you could use the killings in boston to stop

immigration reform but god forbid, you use a mass shooting to talk about gun safety laws. that's the no-no. that's exploitation. here we can talk about maybe changes to the fbi right away. maybe we should, of course. we can talk about stopping immigration reform. it is really remarkable. and now do you have this growing course of conservatives saying let's load this down. leadership however, is hanging on. boehner yesterday on fox news said it may slow down by a couple of days but immigration reform is something we have to do because they know if they don't do it, they're in trouble demographically. they're going to keep this train rology but you do have those conservatives using it as an opportunity. >> bill: they have a lot of support around the country and the talk radio hosts around the country. they derailed it before. they might be able to do it again. igor volsky here, managing editor of think progress talking about the issues of the day with you. 1-866-55-press. join the conversation. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill

press show." >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me.

>>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that anything. what the hell were they thinking?

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: here we go. 12 minutes now before the top of the hour. we're going to talk terrorism and torture with former ambassador to mexico, jim jones who will be in studio with us at the top of the next hour. right now we're surveying the issues of the day. the big issues of the day on immigration and on guns and on boston with igor volsky from

think progress. igor, always good to have you in studio. thank you for being the early riser. you get the prices for coming in week after week, first hour. >> i'll collect my trophy. >> it is a very small trophy. >> bill: you have a quick story? >> one of the three people that died in the boston marathon bombings, krystle campbell was laid to rest yesterday. the westboro baptist church, we know, god hates fags people who show up and protest at these things. >> bill: sickos. >> there's some good in the world because the local teamsters in boston -- >> bill: god bless them! >> built a human shield around krystle campbell's funeral service to keep them away from any of the family member and friends and loved ones of her to see any of that garbage at the funeral. teamsters showed up. they protected the funeral service and all is right with the world. >> bill: good for the teamsters. absolutely!

igor you have been talking about one issue -- you know what? before we get there okay. kathleen's been kind enough to call from chicago. let's say a quick hello to kathleen. hi kathleen. >> caller: hi, bill. how do youing? >> bill: i'm doing good. what's up? >> caller: i feel good this morning. i heard joe scarborough a little while ago get on his republican party. what we should do now let the republicans self-destruct. don't try to help them out! it is time, seriously, time for those republicans to get on about their business. because they have been holding this country trying to hate on this president. holding this country hostage for five years. you're going to exploit somebody -- you're going to tell criminals it is okay to have guns? we can send our boys and girls across the sea to get killed to help defend other people's right to be safe but right here in this country, some of the same soldiers come back, my mother or father's child can be safe in

this country. you can't even get background checks so don't try to help the republicans out. let them self-destruct. >> bill: they're doing a good job of self-destructs, right kathleen? >> caller: that's right. let them do what they're doing. >> bill: all right kathleen. i gotta tell you man when -- i don't know. i have no -- i have no -- don't even talk about ever retiring, right? but if i ever were retire, you know who will take this show over? kathleen! she is red hot. love her! igor one other thing you're writing about is the marketplace fairness act which came up at our briefing yesterday. jay carney said the president -- 100% behind it. >> well, it makes sure that levels the playing field between online retailers and mom and pop shops and it says that online retailers are going to have to collect the tax from buyers in the states where the buyers are.

>> bill: so what it means is -- for me, as a consumer -- when i buy something online something from amazon, for example, i'm going to have to pay the state sales tax. now i don't. >> amazon is kind of doing it now. it has already started to collect -- >> bill: not everywhere. >> i think it is increasing its campaign and supporting this bill which is part of the reason why you see such overwhelming support, some 73 senators voted for it yesterday. moved it out. it's gonna come to a vote they think by the end of this week. it is really remarkable because it has pitted democrats against democrats, republicans against republicans. you have people from new hampshire who don't have a sales tax raising hell over this and complaining about what this is going to do to their folks. it says look, it is not fair because you don't have a level

of competition between the mom and pop shops and online retailers that folks can go -- >> bill: save the sales tax. >> also it hits lower income americans the most. because they have less access to internet. so they have fewer smaller opportunity to take advantage of the no sales tax situation. and so it is kind of a regressive tax in that way. we're talking about kind of leveling the playing field everywhere. >> bill: it seems one other advantage for the poor and the middle class which is that all of these programs that are cut because of the budget cuts at the state level, that will pump more money in. >> that's right ones lobbying for this. in a real intense way. the local budgets the state budgets who are saying we have big holes to fill and this is one way of doing it. >> bill: it will help keep medicaid -- >> some of the programs running. >> bill: i used to be against

it. i buy so much online, hell, i don't want to pay the sales tax. it is only fair that it is a level playing field and that the small businesses and small bookstores whatever, not be -- >> have to let them compete in a fair way. >> bill: on the right side of this issue. we'll talk motor about this, too. igor, we've already run out of time. i can't believe it. so come back and see us next week. >> i will. thank you, guys. >> bill: thinkprogress.org. you can make it your home page if you want. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern.

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>> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right. here we go. by the way ambassador jim jones joining us at the top of the next hour. to talk about torture under george w. bush. speaking about george w. bush, a lot of comments on the bush library. bella says a library for what. for a coloring book or a pop-up pop-up -- picture book? i get it. this is a library to teach you how to read an upside down picture book. and on the senate, rick owning suggests i think somebody needs to start a campaign featuring unwanted posters. mugshots of senators and with a record of their votes against the public wishes like on the

gun bill last week. good point! i like that. it is the "full court press" on tuesday morning.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: what do you say friends and neighbors? good morning, it is tuesday april 23rd. great to see you today. thank you so much for joining us here on the "full court press" on current tv. your morning roundup of the news of the day. and your morning town hall where you get a chance to speak out and sound off and express your opinion about what's going on here in our nation's capital around the country or around the

globe. we'll bring you up to date on those events and again take your comments by phone at 1-866-55-press. on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow or on twitter. what the hell. anthony weiner is back on twitter. we've been there all along at bpshow and you don't have to be embarrassed by anything we may send out on twitter. i hope we're not embarrassed by anything you send us. in the news of the day, it is now official. suspect in the boston marathon bombing has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction. which resulted in the deaths of three people. and serious injuries to over 170 people. he will also, no doubt soon be charged with assassination of an mit police officer. at the white house yesterday jay carney told us that dzhokhar tsarnaev will not be tried as an

enemy combatant no matter what lindsey graham says. and big fireworks here in washington yesterday over immigration reform. we'll bring you up to date on all of the above on current tv. the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside.

(vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: it's now official. he's been charged with use of a weapon of mass destruction to cause death and destruction at the boston marathon. charges filed yesterday. good morning everybody. what do you say? great to see you today. it is tuesday april 23rd. welcome to the "full court press." coming to you live all across this great land of ours.

coast-to-coast. we're out there with you on your local progressive talk radio station. that's the radio side. and on current tv. that's the tv side of the business whether you're watching or listening. we welcome you to the program this morning. not only welcome you to the program, invite your participation. give us a call at 1-866-55-press. you want to join the conversation or follow us on twitter and talk to us on twitter at bpshow. and on facebook, at facebook.com/billpressshow. want to hear from you your views on the issues, important as anything. we have to say. and here at the top of the hour, we're going to be talking about an issue you care about we've talked a lot about. a very important issue. and that is whether or not the united states did break the law engaging in torture after september 11th in the last seven or eight years. joining us in studio is the

cochair of a commission, part of the constitution project that recently completed a report on this issue. our former ambassador to mexico, good friend of mine and a neighbor ambassador jim jones. hi jim. >> bill, good to be with you. >> bill: thanks for coming in. want you to meet the team. peter ogborn. dan henning. hi guys. alichia cruz has the phones and cyprian bowlding -- >> more importantly -- >> bill: you can even take your mug with you. >> all right. >> bill: unless you and olivia have too many mugs at your house. if you have room for one more. >> okay, great. >> bill: it is all yourself. i guess that we can all breathe -- i don't know, life is getting back to normal, right? in many, many ways. one of the signs life is getting back to normal is anthony weiner is getting back into politics. he says -- he indicates hints he wants to run for mayor of

new york again. and the clearest sign of that is yesterday, he is now back on twitter. >> okay. >> bill: now, we hope he's a little more judicious in his use of his twitter account than he was last time. but david letterman could not resist having a little fun with this last night. >> here's the only good news we've had in a week. anthony weiner's running for mayor of new york city. [ applause ] he announced this earlier today in his underpants. >> bill: you know those jokes are going to come over and over. how does anthony weiner know people want him to run for mayor? >> weiner said he's going to run for mayor because he's done extensive polling. your extensive polling. >> bill: that's just the beginning of what anthony weiner

can expect, right? >> maybe he's just like me -- >> bill: of you -- uh-oh. on my phone, i have more pictures of my feet and every time i'm looking down at it -- >> bill: i don't think so. >> interesting defense though. i don't know how to work it. >> bill: why didn't he think of that? all right. later we'll be joined by reporters from "national journal" and roll call. a very exciting guest today randy is going to be joining us. if you are into mma, you know him. if you're into wrestling, you know him. and if you're into -- peter that movie i can never remember -- >> the expendables with sylvester stallone. >> bill: actor boxer mma champion randy is ahead too.

but first -- >> announcer: this is the "full court press." >> other headlines making news on this tuesday the staff of the "the boston globe" finally got to kick back and relax a bit after last week's long hours of reporting and they came to work to a welcome surprise from their friends at the "chicago tribune." that paper bought lunch for the entire globe staff in boston. it sent pizza with a note reading we can only imagine what an exhausting and heartbreaking week it has been for you and your city but do know your newsroom colleagues here in chicago and across the nation stand in awe of your tenacious coverage. you make us proud to be journalists. we can't buy you lost sleep so at least let us pick up lunch. >> bill: usually dog-eat-dog. >> nike had to move quickly this week in removing a popular t-shirt from stores following what happened in boston. they pulled the boston massacre t-shirts from schells.

they are spirited with red ink symbolizing blood with boston massacre on it. they commemorate the new york yank yankees ruin the playoff chances and they've been big sellers for years. just a very unfortunate coincidence with what happened last week. >> bill: it was also of course another boston massacre in history. but i think it is good to get those off the shelves. >> cbs has announced who they're bringing to the white house correspondents' dinner. several members of the military will be there and a washington sports star, nationals third baseman ryan zimmerman. also sitting at the table former obama aide reggie love, congressman chris van hollen and a couple of other members and actor daniel dae kim from hawaii five-0. >> is anyone bringing bryce harper? that's the guy to get. >> bill: i might mention that congressman keith ellison will

be a guest of the "full court press" and the "bill press show" at the white house correspondents' dinner. as well as president jim hoffa of the teamsters and president randie weingarten of the american federation of teachers. >> nice table. >> bill: we'll keep up with cbs. mr. ambassador, let me ask you. first of all, i saw this article in "the new york times" just about a week ago. u.s. practice torture after 9-11 nonpartisan review concludes. that was your commission. part of the constitution project. first of all, how long did you look at this and how many of you were there and how did go about it? tell us about it. >> we had 11 members on the panel. we looked at it for a little over two years. we had a terrific staff that was headed by nick lewis the former journalist of "the new york

times." they did a superb job in conducting interviews in about seven different countries, visiting black sites that existed in some of these countries. the panel was totally bipartisan and is made up of conservatives and liberals. >> bill: your cochair -- >> my cochair was asa hutchinson. asa was a former member of congress, republican from arkansas. he also was the deputy secretary of department of homeland security. he is very highly respected conservative republican. we had bill sessions, the former federal judge former head of the federal bureau of investigation, the fbi. we had tom pickering one of the most distinguished ambassadors in the foreign service that we've ever had. we had general david irvine who is an expert on interrogation and just --

>> bill: you looked at this for two years. what the you conclude? did the united states engage in torture? >> that's correct. >> bill: what did you find? >> we found in certain instances, the answer is definitely yes. it was totally -- the conclusion was a unanimous decision by the panel. that we -- >> bill: no doubt. >> no doubt. we engaged in practices with the united states, engaged in practices that not only violated international law and treaty and u.s. law, it violated what we had preached against and what we had brought cases against in other countries. and so the purpose of this was to look at this question and decide whether or not the united states lost its way. during the -- obvious tensions that occurred after 9-11 and during the past decade in 12 years. and we concluded that it did. we were unanimous on every subject except there was a

disagreement on the issue of guantanamo bay the prison there. the only difference there was of the 166 prisoners who are still left there a little over half of those have already been decided by u.s. government agencies, the military, the intelligence law enforcement that we have no reason to hold them. but they have not been released. so there was no question on those but the question was on a minority of those prisoners who we think the government thinks, actually are terrorists in some form or another. but because evidence has been tainted or because they have not collected the kind of evidence they need to present in a trial they have not been tried. so the question is we all agreed to indeaf nate detainment of prisoners is against our constitution. the question is where do you put

those prisoners? >> bill: oh, right. >> the majority of us felt that you should put those prisoners under immigration law in the united states and put them in federal prisons in the united states and review their cases every six months. the minority -- and then close guantanamo bay. it is an eyesore. it is a blot on the u.s. government's value system at least as we try to perceive ourselves in other countries. and the minority -- distinct minority of our panel felt that guantanamo should be kept open and those prisoners should be kept there. other than that, we agreed on everything. we agreed that -- >> bill: yeah, i want to come back to the torture because -- so you said first of all that we did indeed, practice torture. it was clearly against the law. u.s. law and international law. no doubt about it. >> 25 years ago last week, president ronald reagan supported and asked the congress

to pass the u.n. convention -- the united nations convention against torture abuse degradement, et cetera. we violated that. our own domestic laws, we violated those. other international treaties, we violated. so yes. >> bill: now did you find, did you look into and did you find, did we get anything out of this torture? did we get any information out of this torture which made us more secure, save lives? >> that's a question that is not fully answered in that we did not find that the torture led to any kind of usable evidence or usable information. on the other side, those who were in the administration at the time avert that it did. the problem that we have is we did not have access to classified information to determine whether it is did or it didn't. it was our opinion that those

who say that it did lead to usable information had the burden of proof to show how. but from what we were able to get from interviews, over 100 interviews from all of the data out there that is open to the public. we did not see that this kind of torture resulted in usable information. in fact, in many cases it resulted in unusable and false information that took time for our investigators to get to the bottom of. >> bill: has anything changed now? >> well, the obama administration has changed a number of things. and we have reason to believe that by executive order they -- that things are better. >> bill: that we're no longer engaging in torture? >> not that we can tell right now. the problem is this is done by executive order. it can be changed. we think the congress needs to

come in, look at the laws, close the loopholes and make it very, very difficult if not impossible for future governments to come in and say torture is the thing we want to do. >> bill: now i have a question why you need a new law when there are already laws on the books. before we go to break, i doubt that your commission got into this question. i have to ask it. if we know that members of our government knowingly broke the law, why shouldn't they be held responsible and accountable for breaking the law? >> i think that's a good question. we did not get into that. as a panel, did not want to get into making those kinds of accusations. however, i think it is very important that the classified information be made public as much as humanly possible, at least in protecting our obligations to certain personnel and treaties. but i think it should be made

open and public and then the public decides the government decides who violated the law and who did not. based upon what we looked at, yes, the responsibility really goes to the top of the government. and what happened is when they changed the regulations on torture, waterboarding, for example, and they didn't substitute anything to fill that vacuum as they went down the chain of command the rules became looser and looser. and that's when you started getting violations. >> bill: ambassador jim jones here in studio with us. cochair of this commission from the constitution project. you heard. which discovered two year study that we did engage in torture. it was against the law and we got no usable information out of it. maybe got a lot of false information out of it. your questions, your comments welcome at 1-866-55-press.

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this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> announcer: this is the bim press show. >> bill: 26 minutes after the hour. talking torture with the cochair of the nonpartisan commission from the constitution project ambassador jim jones about their findings and study. before we get back to that, peter, quickly. >> we've been following this race very closely in my home state of south carolina. a new poll has been released

looking at the elizabeth colbert busch and mark sanford race. >> she goes by colbert. the latest poll from the public policy polling shows she has a sizable lead over mark sanford. the most recent lead she's got 50%. he has 41%. a 9-point lead opened up for elizabeth colbert busch. to show you how big of a change or how big of a shift that is, she's the democrat. mitt romney won that district by 18 points in the last election in november. she's up by 9 over mark sanford. so he has himself some problems. >> when is that election? >> two weeks away. >> bill: coming up. maybe republicans should have thought twice before they figured they could bring mark sanford back. jim, ken is calling from san rafael california. ken, good morning. >> caller: good morning. i would like to ask the

ambassador, are the noncombatants -- i don't know if they're noncombatants or not the ones still in guantanamo, that we do not deem to be a threat, have they been released? we heard almost a year ago that this decision was made that they weren't a problem. have they been released? if not why not? >> bill: good question, ken. >> the answer is no, they have not been released. there's 80 some of those people who have been cleared by all of the intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies. they have not been released. i'm not quite sure what the holdup is but as i understand is it, all that needs to be done is for the president to have his secretary of defense sign an order and they would be released. and i think that's one of the things in our report we pressed should be done. >> bill: should be done. can't find any evidence against them after all of this time. >> even more, the hunger strike -- >> bill: have to interrupt you because we're out of time.

thank you so much for the good work on this and for coming in and telling us about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

>> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey here we go. 33 minutes now after the hour. the "full court press" here on a tuesday. tuesday, april 23rd. good to have you with us. we're coming to you live from our studio here on capitol hill in washington, d.c. and brought to you today by the labors international union of north america. the good men and women under terry o'sullivan building a

better america. that's their web site, liuna builds america.org. it was now official. headline here in this morning's "new york times." surviving suspect is charged by u.s. in boston attack. what were the charges? how will he be tried? for answers we go to chief correspondent for the "national journal," michael hirsch joining us on our news line this morning. good to talk with us. >> thanks for having me. >> bill: this -- tell us what was dzhokhar tsarnaev i guess we pronounce it, charged with yesterday officially? >> well, he was basically charged with using weapons of mass destruction to, you know, cause mayhem and death. and he faces potentially -- that's the main charge. he basically faces potential for

the death penalty as a result. >> bill: i didn't see a charge -- pardon me, of killing police officer. will that be added or was that included? presumably, that will be added. this was basically the result of single affidavit sworn by an fbi special agent in which the main charges, that is the terrorism charges related to the boston marathon bombings were lodged. >> bill: did you say there's no doubt that will be added? >> i'm sure it will be. >> bill: i just wanted to make sure i heard you correctly. i guess there are other charges along the way. >> of course. >> bill: a carjacking and firing at police officers and all of those things. this is where they start. the big question, of course, is what is his status and how will he be charged? jay carney spoke of this yesterday. dan, do we have that byte?

i was at the briefing when this was raised. here was jay carney's response. >> he will not be treated as an enemy combatant. we will prosecute this terrorist. under u.s. law. >> bill: was there any question about that, do you think, michael? >> well, certainly not in my mind or apparently jay carney's mind. there is a question in the minds of some critics on capitol hill and particular senator lindsey graham who along with his comrade, i would say senator john mccain suggested that he should be tried as an enemy combatant in the military tribunal. but i think the obama administration was arguing very reasonably this was basically a u.s. citizen. tsarnaev had recently been naturalized, who committed allegedly, these acts on u.s. soil. so it was pretty straightforward. and you know, what's been left

out of the conversation, i think is just how troubled the military tribunal system has become. it has really become difficult. a lot of tainted evidence, a lot of questions about whether, in any way, you can reconcile the procedures of these military tribunals with the constitution. that's something the administration didn't want to get into particularly given as carney pointed out you've had hundreds of terrorists prosecuted in u.s. courts and quite successfully. >> bill: in fact, senator dianne feinstein and yesterday jay carney made the same point that it would be -- it is unconstitutional to try an american citizen as an enemy combatant, right? an american citizen has certain rights under the constitution which we just can't ignore. >> yeah, i mean you know, there are questions about whether an american abroad and how an american abroad might be

treated. here on u.s. soil, there is no reason why this suspect should not be treated like timothy mcveigh, the oklahoma city bomber or you know, scores of less-known cases. where you are prosecuted for murder essentially. as we know, mcveigh was executed and so it's not really an issue outstanding anymore. obviously the decision has been made. >> bill: that's right. that train has gone down the track. so you alluded to it but have the feds decided whether or not to seek the death penalty? this would certainly be a death penalty charge, correct? >> yeah. under federal law even though massachusetts state law does not allow for a death penalty he could face the death penalty. i expect that he will. according to at least "the new york times" and i think that -- there were some other accounts as well, the

19-year-old suspect when he was awakened on sunday to face these charges, are to be -- or to be interviewed, basically admitted to his part in the bombings. and so you know, assuming that the feds don't taint this case in any way it looks like a pretty open and shut case of murder. mass murder, i should say. >> bill: you have written that this would be in the "national journal," talking with michael hirsch, chief correspondent forever the "national journal," you've written the boston suspect's legal status is a test case. how do you mean that? you indicated we've tried a lot of terrorist cases in federal court so why is this a test case? >> well, to be fair to myself, i wrote that on saturday before the decision had been made before we actually had heard from the administration, you know, that it was definitely going to try him in civilian court. i was trying to make the

argument that's how he should be tried. in large part, because not just because the constitutional questions of how you try u.s. citizen on u.s. soil but also because the military tribunal system has just been -- all along the way. >> bill: yeah, no, it has been -- been almost a joke, the military tribunal system which gets to the whole question of what we're doing with the people in guantanamo and what we will eventually do with them. but we'll save that for another day, michael. right now we'll focus on boston. good reporting on this. and thanks for helping us out this morning to understand it all. >> thanks so much for having me. >> bill: michael herrish at the "national journal."com. more than anything this little mini flap, right over whether or not he should be tried as an enemy combatant, it was just a little -- another little temper tantrum by lindsey graham, another attempt by lindsey graham to get his name in the

headlines on any story. no matter what the issue is, right, whether it's headstart or whether it's healthcare or whether it's terrorism or whether it's immigration or whatever the hell, lindsey graham has to be out there trying to prove he knows more about this issue than anybody else. he's the one who said it was outrageous for the obama administration to do anything other than brand him and try him as an enemy combatant. you know what that's all about. for lindsey to get a headline but also to blame it on obama and point at obama say there he is. this guy is a democrat. he's too soft on terrorism, not doing enough on terrorism. clearly, he committed an act of terror. therefore, he's a foreign enemy combatant. no lindsey. you're wrong. i love the fact this decision was made so fast this decision -- the correct decision was made and basically people were saying who cares what that

pipsqueak from south carolina says. we just don't pay any attention to him. none of us should pay any attention to him. it is the "full court press" on tuesday, april 23rd. your comments always welcome at 1-866-55-press. and on twitter at bpshow. >> announcer: chatting with you live at current.com/billpress this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

john fugelsang: if you believe in states rights but still support the drug war you must be high. cenk uygur: i think the number one thing viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. i think the audience gets that i actually mean it. michael shure: this show is about being up to date so a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. joy behar: you can say anything here. jerry springer: i spent a couple of hours with a hooker joy behar: your mistake was writing a check jerry springer: she never cashed it (vo) the day's events. four very unique points of view. tonight starting at 6 eastern.

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, here we go. 15 minutes before the top of the hour here on the "full court press." tuesday morning. back to the news of the day. but you heard me talk so much about identity theft. one version of it is called friendly fraud. that's when it is a member of your family who steals your i.d. who would think people can stoop that low. louisiana deputies have arrested a woman for stealing the identity of her grandmother. and using that information to buy more than $100,000 in vehicles computers and home improvements including a truck a minivan a motorcycle, computers, a metal garage, appliances and a whole load of sod. more evidence that you must be protected against identity theft.

and i've chosen to do so with what's called lifelock ultimate, the most comprehensive i.d. theft protection ever made. highly recommended. it even monitors your bank accounts for takeover fraud but of course, lifelock can't protect you or your bank account if you're not a member. call now mention press 60. you'll get 60 risk-free days of lifelock ultimate identity theft protection. if you're not happy call within 60 days to get a full refund. see lifelock.com for details and then give them a call at 1-800-356-5967 for lifelock ultimate. we were talking the fact that the boston marathon suspect has now been charged. and he will be tried in federal court as an american citizen. he will not be branded as lindsey graham demanded, an enemy combatant. todd is calling from pot lash,

identify -- from potlatch, idaho. what's your point? >> caller: my point iser the access the boston police used to invade everyone's home during this question -- or during -- >> bill: you mean the search, the perimeter. >> caller: did they have warrants to go into everyone's home? >> bill: i honestly don't know the answer to that question. do i think they did the wrong thing? no. do you? >> caller: no. i don't think they did the wrong thing but don't they have to have -- >> bill: that is a good question. i don't know the answer to that question. in an emergency situation like that when you have a murderer on the loose in a neighborhood, they may have been able to get a blanket warrant. they may have some emergency provision that will enable them to search these homes in order to protect the public.

without it. todd, i don't know. i'll ask friends of mine who are in law enforcement. maybe we can get an answer from one of our listeners or viewers this morning. let's say hello to tom out in homer glen, illinois. what do you say, tom? >> i was just wondering about this word of mass destruction. i don't remember anybody ever being charged for that. to me, it has always been mass destruction has been chemical warfare, atomic bombs you know? >> bill: yeah. >> caller: is the underwear bomber charged with that? or the unabomber? >> bill: no. but i think it is clear that some explosives sewn in underwear or put on the sole of your shoe does not -- is not a weapon of mass destruction. we were talking -- i think you're right tom. we haven't heard about this because it hasn't happened before. this is the first time ieds have been used in this country. and they are clearly weapons of mass destruction.

so they've been imported here and i think that's -- yeah, you're right. it is new -- the use is new and the charge is new. >> caller: i've never heard it used. i'm 75 years old. to me, weapons of mass destruction was like the atomic bomb and chemical warfare. >> bill: today tom, ieds are the weapons -- the new weapon of mass destruction. and what's interesting here, of course, is the last time -- the first time we heard that phrase, of course, was george w. bush insisting that iraq had them. well, iraq didn't but these two kids in boston did. tom, appreciate hearing from you. how about christine? christine in kingston, illinois. >> caller: good morning. >> bill: what's up? >> caller: i feel sorry for lindsey graham. he embarrasses himself every time he doesn't vote democrat. doesn't he try to make everything scary. everything has to scare the

public. has to be scary. has to be foreign so everyone stays scared. it is a warmongering thing and it has to do -- >> bill: everything is all about lindsey me, me, me. >> caller: i'm from illinois and i don't know why rick perry would want me to live in texas. that scares me that he think illinois businesspeople want to go to texas. >> bill: he also thinks california businesspeople want to go to texas too. he did that -- he tried to campaign out there, as well. hey, one other thing i wanted to mention, you probably heard the whining yesterday and no matter where you were, it sounded like sirens. no, they were republicans whining because there were air-traffic control delays yesterday, some flights delayed up to two hours. here's the republican governor of florida, rick scott. >> this doesn't make any sense why are we doing this. it is going to impact delays at all of our airports in the state. it is going to impact people's interest in coming to our state because of the delays. it is going to impact business in our state.

it is wrong thing to do. >> bill: this is terrible, terrible terrible, they're saying. yeah, there were delays up to three hours in atlanta up to two hours in chicago. if i were on the receiving end of those on one of those flights, waiting for one of those flights, i would have been pissed off as well. you gotta say this should not come as a surprise. we were told -- it is not that i told you so. they told us so. i was in the briefing room when ray lahood came into the white house and said before the sequester kicked in, just want you to know if the sequester cuts go through we are going to have to furlough our faa employees. many of whom are air-traffic controllers. and if there are fewer air-traffic controllers on the job, that is going to mean flight delays, flight cancellations and some regional airports shut down.

that's exactly -- it didn't happen on march 1. it didn't happen on april 1 because they had to wait until april 1 until they could even issue the furloughs. now they've been issued. yesterday happened to be the first day that those furloughed air-traffic controllers didn't show up. and so what happened? flight delays and flight cancellations just like ray lahood said. and if republicans don't like it, if the media doesn't like it, if customers don't like it, there is only one answer, get rid of the sequester! get republicans in congress to do away with the sequester cuts which make no sense at all. and which particularly hurt programs that impact and help poor and the middle class in this country. get rid of the sequester and accept president obama's so-called grand bargain which has just as many budget cuts in it plus some new revenue from getting closing -- closing the tax loopholes on big oil

companies and owners with corporate jets and people who park their money in the cayman islands. et cetera. so there is a way out of this. but continuing to whine not going to change anything. what's the president up to today? i'll tell you when we come back. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

current tv is the place for true stories. with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines. real, gripping, current. documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: all right. here we go. president obama and his schedule today. of course, people get the daily

briefing at 10:15 this morning. meeting with his senior advisers after that. early this afternoon annual event in the rose garden at the white house i've been there for several of these where the president will honor the 2013 national teacher of the year. later, he will meet with amir qatar and then this evening the president has another dinner with a bipartisan group with a group of senators. this is a bipartisan group of women senators. all women. with dinner at the white house with the president tonight. jay carney's press briefing at 12:30 today. randy cotoure who is an actor wrestler, olympic wrestler and former mma title holder is going to be here in studio with us in the next hour. we'll all get fit with randy!

talk to you soon. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. welcome to the "full court press" this tuesday morning. april 23rd. great to see you today. here we go. lots to talk about. whether it is happening up in boston, here in washington d.c. around the rest of the country around the globe. we've got it covered. we'll tell you what's going on and not only that, give you a chance to talk about it. give us a call at

1-866-55-press. to express your point of view. join us on twitter at bpshow. join us on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. let's start in boston. it is now official. the boston marathon suspect has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction to kill three people and to injure over 170 more. he will, i'm sure, also be charged with killing an mit police officer and other criminal acts. but jay carney telling us yesterday at the white house no matter what lindsey graham says, he will not be charged as an enemy combatant because that would be against the united states constitution. meanwhile, also some republicans now here in washington are trying to use what happened ins boston as an effort to derail immigration reform and there were fireworks yesterday in the united states senate when chuck

schumer suggested that and chuck grassley objected to being so identified. lots to catch up on. we'll bring you up to date on everything and a lot more right here. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know

that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> bill: the boston marathon suspect charged with use of wmds weapons of mass destruction to create murder and mayhem in boston. let the trial begin! good morning everybody. great to see you this morning on a tuesday april 23rd. what do you say? it is the "full court press." we're coming to you live from

our nation's capital. we're booming out to you live all the way across this great land of ours. on the radio. on your local progressive talk radio station and on television on current tv. good to you have with us on the radio side, on the tv side. whatever. we want to hear from you too. at 1-866-55-press. join the conversation at any time. give us your comments on twitter at bpshow and on facebook. become our friend on facebook. befriend us and tell us what you think about the issues of the day at billpressshow.com -- no. okay peter help me out. >> for facebook? >> bill: facebook. >> facebook.com/billpressshow. we don't own facebook yet. >> bill: i only do that 30 times a day and sometimes i have a brain fart. >> well, you drink. >> bill: that's what it is. >> i blame the gin.

>> bill: may say current tv. it should say bombay sapphire. >> that's it. >> bill: hey get through the issues of the day we often need help and we're pleased to turn this morning to neda who is with cq roll call. a reporter covering capitol hill. also writing this week for the week. welcome to the program. it is early for me. i'm a nighttime reporter. >> bill: we have the team here. peter ogborn and dan henning of course. >> hey hey. >> good morning. >> bill: alichia cruz with the phones and cyprian bowlding with the video cam. you know what? because you do cover capitol hill. and in addition to your hard

reporting, you also keep a look at sort of the comical side of capitol hill and what better comedy in recent years than anthony weiner. >> speaking of hard reporting. >> oh, wow! wow. peter! >> come on. >> no, no, it's true. >> bill: he decided he's going to come back. we know -- >> he's going to come over and over -- stop! [ laughter ] >> bill: going to have a political comeback. >> see, there's nothing you can do. you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. >> that, too. >> bill: so we know that he plans a political revival because he's back on twitter. >> he is. verified right away. >> bill: david letterman last night had a little fun with this unusual way of tweeting. >> here's the only good news we've had in a week.

anthony weiner is running for mayor of new york city. [ applause ] >> he announced it earlier today in his underpants. >> i'm sure he did. >> bill: we know he would have to go there right? how does anthony weiner know people want him to run for mayor? >> weiner said he's going to run because he's done extensive polling. i know. that's what got him into trouble in the first place. extensive polling. >> you totally need one of those wacky bass lines like paul schaefer gives letterman as he's talking. >> bill: how long has paul schaefer been doing that? how long has david letterman? >> he's as old as the hills. >> bill: that duo they -- it is an act that works. and paul's got his band. there you go. anyhow neda here for the first

half hour then we'll be joined by randy actor wrestler, mma champion. who's going to tell us how to get fit. we'll do some extreme fitness terrific. >> inside the studio? >> no one leaves here until i get pinned. i think he's a chump right. i'll tell him that to his face. >> bill: right to the news of the day. but first... big headlines of the day with dan. >> other headlines making news on this tuesday. that north dakota local nbc anchor we talked about yesterday who dropped the "f" bomb on his first day on the air, he will not be coming back after the suspension. a.j. clemente was fired yesterday. he apologized on twitter saying it was a rookie mistake. he likely won't be unemployed for long. he scored numerous radio interviews yesterday. picked up a lot of support saying he deserves a second chance. >> bill: he said it from the heart. >> he said it from the heart.

>> we should have him read the news for you one day dan even though dennis kucinich isn't in congress anymore his wife is still on a tear to make sure representatives eat healthy while at work in the capitol. the hill reports elizabeth kucinich who is a vegan, has been helping make sure the house cafeteria has plenty of plant-based foods available. she's noticed since her husband las left capitol hill, several nonsalad items have snuck their way on to the salad bar. she won't have any of that. she was on the hill yesterday for the earth day luncheon. >> bill: vegtarian caucus? give me a break. >> i heard it wasn't great. >> really? shock. i can't imagine. that's not healthy. >> and media coverage of this coming weekend's white house correspondents' dinner has kicked up a notch. etv famous for its red carpet

coverage for hollywood shows will do the same thing at this dinner. ryan seacrest will not be hosting it. they'll be streaming the event online. >> bill: that's the dumbest part of this white house correspondents' dinner is the red carpet. you know? >> that there is a red carpet. ridiculous. >> bill: that there even is a red carpet. >> i was looking forward to walking it this year. >> you're going to walk it? >> no, i haven't been invited. i can still walk it. >> bill: neda, you've been writing about this article -- caught our attention. urban warfare comes to america. we were talking in the last hour, you look at the headline in the "new york times," surviving suspect charged by the u.s. in the boston attack. he's been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. one of our callers viewers by

the name of tom called to say it is the first time i've heard weapon of mass destruction charge of that used -- it is, isn't it? it is also the first time the weapons of mass destruction have been used in the united states, right? >> the ieds anyway. as far as i know on a massive scale, that's where i think this attack is different than previous terrorism or you know, even acts of aggression from the outside. >> bill: so we don't know where they got the idea on how to build these or where they were built yet? >> no. we don't know. part of me think that's kind of beside the point. the fact that they have kind of entered the vocabulary or the toolbox, i guess of everyday kids, you know. because i'm going to leave the rest of it. they grew up -- at least the one that was caught, grew up in the states. you know he's been here since elementary school. as far as i'm concerned like

he's an american kid. >> bill: yeah. >> and most of the kids i knew didn't revert to ieds when they were unhappy. >> bill: yeah. so what does this mean? that's a pretty chilling headline. urban warfare comes to america. i mean is this something -- do you believe in the people you talk to that we're just going to have to accept or get used to or what? >> well, i think there's a couple of different issues here. there are areas in america that have had -- they may not have had ieds but certainly have had high stress environments that kind of mimic a conflict. i'm thinking here about parts of the inner city or what is known as the inner city, cities like -- places like compton detroit, chicago a couple of years has been off the charts,

parts of d.c. back in the '80s, parts of new york. so i mean -- i think there are high stress environments that mimic conflict zones. however, again i think this was different because this was -- we ignore what happens within our inner cities, within our urban centers and then in a way we ignore what happens in other people's cities and other people's foreign centers where we are active. and i think this was one moment that was broadcast all over -- all across the nation. it was all across the world. people were watching. all of a sudden, middle class americans, people who live in places like watertown they get a taste of what other countries -- what other people, what other parts of their own country have to go through. i don't think that it's crazy to -- the vocabulary that was used was the same. i mean there was a couple of

times when local reporters kept saying i can't believe we're not talking about baghdad or afghanistan. i talked to some marines on friday night. i talked to a couple of marines and one of the things that, you know, obviously you know, they have done several tours in iraq and afghanistan but i mean they agreed that there was something very similar to the footage that was coming out of there. the terror -- the insecurity over the test in that five days. and you know, i mean -- it was actually one of the marines i had spoken to had said you know, i really hope that this is a moment for reevaluation. >> bill: if -- we've feared this moment when the tactics that we see used almost daily in baghdad and kabul and parts of

pakistan, parts of the world much more deadly, too. those ieds over there blow buildings apart and leave big craters in the street and kill dozens and dozens of people. >> right. >> bill: but these were still ieds and they were deadly. we've dreaded the day they might arrive here. now that they have, at least in this one case, do you think that's going to mean, you know, more security in our urban areas? is it going to mean more surveillance cameras? checking backpacks you know, got an e-mail this morning somebody said how could they walk down the street at an event like that with a backpack and not have their backpack checked? well, we don't do that routinely? >> not outside of d.c. in new york, if you consider the inauguration or you consider some of our bigger events in town, we've had the sniper. we have the president, obviously and vice president. and diplomats and stuff.

our level of security i think in d.c. and maybe comfort with that a little bit different. listen, i don't know. i think that there's -- the next couple of months, there is going to be a conversation that starts on the hill and you know, obviously out in the media about what our next steps are and if there is -- what should be the next step. my sense is generally people, when they feel uncomfortable and when they feel threatened, want to take some sort of action. not 100% sure the action they take is always the best. but that's -- you know, the conversation needs to start. >> i think travelers have given up a lot of rights in terms of flying since 9-11. it has been awhile since 9-11 and we're still dealing with some -- >> bill: we are. we are. but there is a distinct difference now when you go to the airports than there was before 9-11. so i guess the question is will we see a difference just walking

the streets of our major cities, going to new york or going to boston or walking around washington as a result of this, after post boston marathon? you know, in the short term, probably we will. >> in the short term. one of the things that is also -- i thought interesting was last week on wednesday and on thursday, there were massive ieds in iraq which killed you know, 27 people on thursday including four kids. and then 16 people including americans on wednesday. maybe i'm flubbing the numbers. but one of the things that was amazing to me is the next day they get back up, people get back up and they go to their coffee shop. i think that that level of resilience really is extraordinary and it isn't something that we've had to deal with. >> bill: no. and boston got back up, too. but again -- >> they shut down the city first. >> bill: also the number of

fatalities and the number of incidences and the power nothing here compared to what we've seen over there. neda here from cq roll call. we're talking urban warfare. let's talk about some of the warfare on capitol hill, too when we come back here on the "full court press." join the conversation at 1-866-55-press. talk to you soon. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of

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>> bill: all right. you got it. 25 minutes after the hour. randy couture is joining us in the next segment. his latest book is "the fighter's ultimate fitness manual." i want to know what randy couture can teach me about getting fit. the ultimate fighter here. >> he'll probably tell you to stop drinking gin in the morning. >> bill: actor and former mma champ, here in studio with us. right now we're talking with neda semnani who is pretty fit herself from cq roll call. [ laughter ] >> bill: urban warfare let's shift to capitol hill warfare. some interesting things going on. you also write for cq roll call, column called heard on the hill. senator tom coburn is known as one of the more serious and he's really good with numbers and budget, you know, that kind of

stuff. member of the united states senate. he got himself a little embarrassed this week, right? what happened? >> yeah, so this was late last week. it was in the midst of all of the gun legislation and obviously it is a horrible week with boston and west texas and everything that's possibly going wrong could go wrong. and not going to say why he fell into a fountain. >> come on. >> i'm not allowed to. >> bill: he fell into a fountain. >> he was at a black-tie gala, the march of dimes -- at the national building museum. for those of you who have never been to the national building museum some genius decided to put a sunken fountain, huge, sunken fountain in the middle -- and they -- it is beautiful. they set up the tables around it. and so senator coburn after

wreaking havoc and making news all day i guess was distracted and was walking walking walking and bloop fell, bum over teakettle into the fountain and he was soaked up to his neck and he had to take off his -- >> bill: he didn't just sort of step in like one foot or something. no, he went all the way in. >> all the way in. up to his neck. and then he had to take off his cowboy boots then do this like cartoon thing, pour out. and there's like little fish, like the little fish flies out. that whole thing. you don't know what i'm talking about. >> bill: i know very well. you said he was distracted. did you mean a different d word? >> no. this is why i don't know why they won't let me say it because -- >> bill: drugs or drunk? >> neither of those. i've heard neither of those. >> bill: we'll get to the bottom of this.

neda semnani thanks so much for coming in. >> thanks for having me. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour now. the "full court press" coming to you live all the way across this great country of ours. on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. and you know we cover the waterfront we always tell you that, everything from politics to sometimes we get into fine cuisine. sometimes we get into sports.

we've never been in this field. it is a pleasure to welcome randy couture. you know him as an actor an olympic wrestler, former mma champ. and as just an all-around great american working on some great causes here in washington, d.c. and is good enough to give us some time and stop by the studio. randy, nice to meet you. >> thanks for having me in. >> bill: you have a nickname, the natural. why? >> i got that handle from a guy named joe gold who was writing for an -- we call it no holds bar back then, an old mma publication called "full contact fighter." i kind of adapted to the guy i was fighting's style and beat him at his own style. he said can we call you the natural. i said i've been called a lot worse things than that. it kind of stuck. >> bill: the natural does it sort of mean like you do it naturally? >> it has taken on that connotation as my career in

fighting progressed, yes. >> bill: is there -- we hear a lot also about so much about steroids in professional sports. is there in mma or in wrestling? >> i think in 2000, they started testing in our sport. and pretty significant penalty if you get caught using any kind of performance-enhancing drug. you lose the right to perform or compete in your sport for a year which is how most of these guys are making their living so that's pretty significant. most guys don't risk that sort of thing. there are the occasional guy who will try to cut the corner. >> bill: that really could ruin a career, too. >> absolutely. i think it is not great publicity for the sport either. >> bill: the sport was good to get ahead of that unlike some other sports. >> yeah. i think the athletic commission who regulate our sport pretty stringently were on top of things and started testing especially athletes.

>> bill: mma is really growing in terms of popularity and people aware of it now right? >> absolutely. i think since 2005 and the first season of the ultimate fighter on spike tv, which kind of shed light on what we do. behind the scenes. how do these guys prepare to get up in a cage and compete in a one-on-one competitive sport. really kind of opened the doors and made it a lot more acceptable. most people had a lot of misconceptions about who we were and what we did as mixed martial artists. >> bill: how did get started in it? >> i was a wrestler since i was 10. i spent almost 16 years trying to make the olympic team and win a medal. fell short on four occasions as an alternate. was on the world team several times. and saw the direct am cavings years of wrestling training in this sport as i was exposed to

mma or mhp as we called it back then. it looked interesting to me. i was intrigued by it. that was in 1997. >> wow. >> bill: was it -- >> no holds barred. the old moniker. >> how do you train for this type of stuff? so often it looks like barely controlled chaos in the ring. you guys are going at each other. how do you prepare for that? >> that's people's first impression is that it looks crazy and it is intimidating. it is very tactical, very technical. we spend a lot of time sparring. you know, your training partner some of your best friends. we beat hell out of each other on a daily basis in preparation. the idea is you train hard and you fight easy hopefully. >> bill: randy couture has his latest book is extreme training, the fighter's ultimate fitness manual. we'll put a link up on our web

site. get a copy of the book. of course, you can always go to amazon. i'm sure your local bookstore. you've mentioned olympic wrestling. we've talked a little bit about this. so the international olympic people now sort of declared that wrestling no longer going to be part of the olympics. >> yeah, i think we're up for a final vote here. there is a vote going to take place in may with the smaller committee, the ioc and then go to the full committee next september. there's three sports i think on the bubble in olympic wrestling is kind of one of those sports. and you know, it is really kind of disappointing and unfortunate for me to have one of the core sports from the original olympic games. >> bill: this goes back as far as you can go with the olympics. >> absolutely. i think that we've got some big people in place. several countries rallying to kind of see that overturn and see that vote go in favor of

bringing olympic wrestling and men's, women's freestyle and greco roman wrestling back to the core sports. >> wasn't it peter greece who said that they wouldn't even compete unless wrestling were included. >> yeah. >> some news about iran recently. they've got a dual meet scheduled with the u.s. in l.a. in may. to kind of garner support for getting it back in the olympics as a core sport. >> bill: so you're in the ring and you're on the mat and you're on the big screen. expendables? that was fun? working with sly stallone? >> what a great group of guys. nothing something i saw myself doing. i've done 18 won't i haves to date. we're going to start expendables three in august. excited about seeing the new script and who we're adding to the mix. >> who else can you possibly add to the mix?

every action star out there is now in the expendables franchise and it kicks so much ass. it is so awesome. >> bill: has arnold -- >> oh, yeah. awesome. >> a lot of fun. great group of guys. for somebody who is an aspiring actor, not a better group to learn from. >> bill: who is -- so number three starts up -- you haven't seen the script yet? >> waiting on a script. but sounds like we're going for august and we'll go back to bulgaria. we filmed a lot of expendables two in bulgaria. it sounds like we're going back there for three. >> bill: what was your most recent movie? >> i just did a movie called "rush" with lundgren, another star from the expendables kind of a cop movie in los angeles in november/december. it is in post-production now. hopefully in the next month or two, we'll see that come out

publicly. >> bill: did you go to the academy awards? >> i did not go this year. >> bill: you've been? >> i haven't been, no. >> bill: we'll have to get you on the red carpet. >> that would be fun. that would be a new experience. >> he could always -- you know, threaten somebody to get on there. are they going to say no to you? in your book, extreme training, i'm curious because you're not fighting and you're acting but you're still obviously in incredible shape. i'm just curious kind of like what do you do on a day-to-day basis to stay in shape like that? >> well, i own a gym in las vegas. when i'm at home -- >> bill: you live in las vegas. >> yes. when i'm at home, i'm at the gym every day. still doing a fair amount of grappling in sparring but mostly fun now. >> sure. >> no competitions which is a little bit different animal. gets a lot more serious and lot stricter when you know you have to step up in that cage. >> bill: you you must have a

strict -- >> i have a coach that helps me with programs. obviously i'm in acting. i can't afford to let myself go. i don't want to be eating doughnuts and that sort of thing. >> you're basically doing pilates. >> it is more -- in line with kind of cross fit style training. that's what we've always done in wrestling and combative sports in general. >> bill: now you are here in our nation's capital. what brings you to washington, d.c. from las vegas? >> you know, i started a foundation for wounded soldiers about five years ago. i wore the uniform in the '80s. nothing going on there but a cold war. obviously now that's not the case. i have an affinity for those guys wearing the uniform and putting it on the line now. went to iraq and visited a bunch of guys there. have been to the hospitals here and seen a bunch of guys coming back that have made significant sacrifices.

i don't know how you can go through that experience and not want to do something for some of these guys. and now obviously i'm at a different place in my life as sort of a celebrity i get the chance to give back a little bit. very small staff at my gym. we run some events in the vegas area mostly. we've raised -- over the course of five years raise about $400,000. because we're so small -- we work with some of the folks at walter reid and other place taking care ofure guys and identify some help. i come out here once a year and write some checks. >> bill: you're going out to walter reid right after you leave the studio. >> yes. >> bill: to visit with the guys. great. that's really great. great, great project. just talked to a couple of congressmen this week, jim mcdermid from washington state who is a democrat and walter --

walter jones from north carolina republican. together, they're working to create a new american commission on helping our wounded veterans so they're right on track with what you're doing. >> awesome. there are so many guys that made that sacrifice and represented us so well. anything you can do for them is great. >> bill: good for you. and it is great to meet you. hear all of the good things you're doing. kind of keep it going. next time i'm in vegas can i stop by the gym? >> absolutely. we're open to the public. we've got tons of great classes and curriculum. we'll get you in some gloves. >> maybe you can beat some sense into this guy. [ laughter ] >> i'm not sure i'm the guy for that. >> bill: randy couture we'll put a link up for his latest book "extreme training, a fighter's ultimate fitness manual." look forward to expendables three. thanks for coming in. >> you bet.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers

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documentaries... on current tv. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey here we go. 12 minutes before the top of the hour. the "full court press" on a tuesday morning. april 23. cover the water park today. great to have randy couture in studio with us. great guy doing some great work.

and in the news of the day two important issues that -- so much focus still on boston and on what's happening up there with charges being filed yesterday. the white house despite what lindsey graham has been whining about, they declared they're not going to try him as an enemy combatant because he's an american citizen. he has rights as an american citizen no matter what he did. rights to a trial and a federal court and that's where he will be trailed. it would be unconstitutional, lindsey graham, for you to do, as you suggested and try him as an enemy combatant. meanwhile, but in addition to that, other things that are going on, let's start with delays in air traffic yesterday. in flights yesterday. it goes back to remember before the sequester kicked in back in february, we talked about this. i was at the white house briefing one day.

when secretary of transportation ray lahood came in and said beware. if the sequester cuts go through, they're going to require us to make some cuts in personnel at the faa that will include air-traffic controllers and this will have consequences. nobody believed him. yesterday, the cuts kick in. they didn't kick in much when the sequester happened. they had to wait until they issued the furlough notices and a couple of weeks until they kicked in. yesterday was the first day. what do we see? flight delays in atlanta up to three hours. flight delays in chicago up to two hours. here in the washington, d.c. and new york area, delays of up to one and a half to two hours. and right away, the very people who supported the sequester started complaining like florida's governor, rick scott. >> this doesn't make any sense why we would be doing this. it is going to impact delays at all of our airports in the

state. it is going to impact people's interest in coming to our state because of the delays. it is going to impact business in our state. it is absolutely the wrong thing to do. >> bill: well, we tried to tell you that, hard head! we tried to tell you that beforehand. the sequester is the wrong -- the furloughs are not the wrong thing to do. the sequester is the wrong thing to do because the sequester requires the furloughs. it is the only way to cut the money from that agency that the sequester demands. and as jay carney pointed out yesterday, with the faa, there was simply no other choice. >> 70% of the faa's operations budget is personnel. the faa must furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days between now and the end of the fiscal year. >> bill: the bottom line is you can't have it both ways. you cannot say we want the sequester. we're going to let the sequester happen. and then bitch and moan every time the sequester has a real impact in the real world. which it is happening.

before this, maybe it was just in areas where most people who are -- upper middle class or wealthy, didn't feel any pain. programs like head start or food stamps or meals on wheels, right. didn't affect me. because i got a good life. well now you know, you're getting on a plane to go somewhere and you have a two-hour delay serves you right. only one way to get rid of this which is get rid of the sequester and have some sensible cuts not just these mad across-the-board cuts and if republicans really don't like what's happening, get rid of the sequester. one other issue immigration. immigration reform has a head of steam because there are -- this bipartisan group of eight senators who came out with the plan for immigration. now some republicans are trying to use what happened in boston because two little kids who came here as immigrants, they're trying to use that to delay or derail the immigration reform,

chuck schumer warned about that yesterday and senator chuck grassley from iowa didn't like what he heard. >> i say that particularly those who are pointing to what happened, the terrible tragedy in boston, as a -- i would say excuse for not doing a bill or delaying it many months or years. >> i've never said that. >> i didn't say you did sir. >> i didn't say -- >> i don't mean you mr. grassley. >> chairmen, die appreciate -- >> -- >> bill: senator leahy bringing them back to order. for anybody to try to use this act of terror, these acts of terror in boston. to derail immigration reform and to deny millions and millions of people here the opportunity to become citizens and contribute to building a better america would just be -- is it just the hype of folly. it is wrong wrong wrong.

i'm sure they're not going to be successful but they'll try anything to stop immigration reform. when i come back i'll wrap things up with today's parting shot. >> announcer: this is the "full court press," the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room tonight at 6 eastern

i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> announcer: the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: well, you can't say they didn't -- they didn't warn

us. secretary of state made a special appearance warning about what we could expect with flights. when it didn't happen on may 1 -- march 1 rather, day one of the sequester, a lot of republicans accused the administration of exaggerating the impact of the massive across-the-board cuts but it was only a matter of time and yesterday, we finally saw lahood's doomsday scenario come true. furloughs in place. thousands of air-traffic controllers off the job and flight delays kicking in up to three and a half hours in atlanta. one and a half to two hours here and in new york city. now the same people who complained and accused the administration of exaggerating before are complaining that air traffic delays are too long. well, too bad! they should have thought of that before we voted for the damn sequester in the first place. eliot spitzer and neil king join

us tomorrow. have a good tuesday. we'll see you wednesday morning.